1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a numbered ticket information issuing system, a numbered ticket information issuing server, and a numbered ticket information issuing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In restaurants, financial institutions, hospitals, retailers, theme parks, and the like, customers come one after the other in a short time resulting in congestion in some cases. In such places that may become congested, numbered ticket dispensers may be provided. A customer who comes to a shop operates a numbered ticket dispenser, receives a numbered ticket issued from the numbered ticket dispenser, and waits for his/her turn.
Conventional numbered ticket dispensers issue numbered ticket papers on which orders are printed. However, to improve the convenience, ticketing systems have been proposed that issue electronic numbered ticket information to mobile terminals.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-092420 discloses a technique, in which a mobile terminal receives numbered ticket data issued by a numbered ticket data issuing terminal via near field wireless communication and the mobile terminal transmits the numbered ticket data to a numbered ticket data confirmation terminal via near field wireless communication to confirm the order of a numbered ticket.
Furthermore, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-077532 discloses a technique, in which a mobile terminal with a contactless IC card performs contactless communication with an accepting device installed in a shop and acquires a numbered ticket issued by the accepting device.
In the techniques described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-092420 and Japanese Laid-open Patent publication No. 2008-077532, numbered ticket data is provided via near field wireless communication or a contactless IC card; therefore, it is possible to prevent numbered ticket information from being provided to customers who have not visited the shop. However, in these techniques, it is necessary to install numbered ticket issuing apparatuses (numbered ticket data issuing terminals or accepting devices) that issue numbered ticket information in shops or facilities, and it is also necessary to perform processes of transmitting and receiving the numbered ticket information between mobile terminals and the numbered ticket issuing apparatuses.